Trade In

[CrazyStups]

Went to our local dealership last night with my father in law. He wants to get a 2008 RTL with Navi and was looking to trade his 2006 Black RTL with moon roof. The ride currently has 29,797 miles on it and the truck is in excellent condition.

We started off asking for their best price on the 2008 RTL with navi. They came back with a 4000 discount off sticker price of $35,090. I was like thats it and they said yup. I said your not including the 4500 incentive. The salesman face turned beat red as said " I did not know about that" So back to the desk she went then came back with another 4500 off making the discount total 8500.00. My father in law seemed pretty excited with that offer, I asked if they could do better this time the manger came over and said since we were a repeat customer he would knock another 500 off bring the discount to 9000.00. So now we have a price of 26,090.00 +tax, tags freight, and fees. With all that included it was going to be 28,544.00 out the door for the new truck.

Now with that that price he drops the bomb and said he wants to trade his current truck. The sales chick seemed pretty upset that we did not mention this earlier but thats the name of the game. So she took down all the info and took the truck to get it appraised. About 10-15 mins when buy and she finally came back and said we've got a great number for your truck...and she quoted him $18,200.00. My father in-law was hoping to get around 20K for the truck. At this point I look at the screen and i see that discount number has changed from 9000.00 to 7100.00. When i pointed this out she tried to play dumb like nothing happend. I was like you changed the discount we want that 9K off like we agreed on earlier. So back to the desk she goes. This time about 5 mins later the manger comes out and I check to screen again to see that the discount is back to the 9K but then the value of the trade was only 16,300.00. I again said you changed the price of the trade how come it went from 18,200.00 to 16,300.00? The sales manger stated that he wanted to do business but that the could not give my father in-law a 9K discount and 18,200 for his trade simply that Ridgelines are selling that it was either going to be the 18,200.00 and 7100.00 discount, or 16,300.00 and 9K discount. At this point my father in law asked if thats all they could do and they said yes. So my father in law pretty upset at this point and decided to walk and we left the dealership.

So my question is do you think my father in law should take the 16,300 on the trade or try to sell the truck out right? We are going to try another dealership tonight but my father in-law is feeling that he's not going to get a good price for a trade. Has anyone ever sold a car directly to carmax? Ive heard good things about selling car to them?

Crazy.

[Outfitter]

I have sold 2 vehicles to Carmax and it was painless. Of course the price they offer you is determined on their supply and demand. I tried to sell them a 3rd vehicle (Acura TL Type S) and they came in really low. I had checked their web site prior to visiting them and saw they had quite a few to choose from but the spread between what they were selling comparable TL's for and what they offered me was almost $5,000 which was ridiculous. I pointed it out to the sales person and he just said it was the best they could do.

[25 Year Honda Owner]

Originally Posted by CrazyStups

Went to our local dealership last night with my father in law. He wants to get a 2008 RTL with Navi and was looking to trade his 2006 Black RTL with moon roof. The ride currently has 29,797 miles on it and the truck is in excellent condition.

We started off asking for their best price on the 2008 RTL with navi. They came back with a 4000 discount off sticker price of $35,090. I was like thats it and they said yup. I said your not including the 4500 incentive. The salesman face turned beat red as said " I did not know about that" So back to the desk she went then came back with another 4500 off making the discount total 8500.00. My father in law seemed pretty excited with that offer, I asked if they could do better this time the manger came over and said since we were a repeat customer he would knock another 500 off bring the discount to 9000.00. So now we have a price of 26,090.00 +tax, tags freight, and fees. With all that included it was going to be 28,544.00 out the door for the new truck.

Now with that that price he drops the bomb and said he wants to trade his current truck. The sales chick seemed pretty upset that we did not mention this earlier but thats the name of the game. So she took down all the info and took the truck to get it appraised. About 10-15 mins when buy and she finally came back and said we've got a great number for your truck...and she quoted him $18,200.00. My father in-law was hoping to get around 20K for the truck. At this point I look at the screen and i see that discount number has changed from 9000.00 to 7100.00. When i pointed this out she tried to play dumb like nothing happend. I was like you changed the discount we want that 9K off like we agreed on earlier. So back to the desk she goes. This time about 5 mins later the manger comes out and I check to screen again to see that the discount is back to the 9K but then the value of the trade was only 16,300.00. I again said you changed the price of the trade how come it went from 18,200.00 to 16,300.00? The sales manger stated that he wanted to do business but that the could not give my father in-law a 9K discount and 18,200 for his trade simply that Ridgelines are selling that it was either going to be the 18,200.00 and 7100.00 discount, or 16,300.00 and 9K discount. At this point my father in law asked if thats all they could do and they said yes. So my father in law pretty upset at this point and decided to walk and we left the dealership.

So my question is do you think my father in law should take the 16,300 on the trade or try to sell the truck out right? We are going to try another dealership tonight but my father in-law is feeling that he's not going to get a good price for a trade. Has anyone ever sold a car directly to carmax? Ive heard good things about selling car to them?

Crazy.

The $26,090 plus tax and stuff is the lowest quote I can recall on a RTL with NAV. You are never going to low ball a dealer on price then hit him with a trade. When trading it is all about how much it cost you to drive the car home. The price of the new vehicle or the allowance for the trade is immaterial!! Ask the dealer how much to trade OTD (out the door) this includes price with trade plus all taxes, fees, tag and title, etc. I would think the best you could get by with would be something over $10K. I tried trading my 06 for the 08 with NAV and could never get closer than $10.5K OTD. I ended up with the RTL w/o NAV plus fog lights, pin stripe, rear mud guards, and my hitch transferred from my trade. Cost me $9K OTD, no other dealer was close. Since I had owned the 06 for 3 years, $3K per year for a quality vehicle is not all that bad. Good luck with your trade!!

[CrazyStups]

The price out the door on the trade was like 11.5K he would have to put with it I think. I guess he thought that he wasn't getting a good trade in price. So maybe 11.5K and his truck isn't to bad then. Though it looks like you were able to get OTD with 9K and your truck. So anything is possible. Perhaps we should try to haggle the OTD cost and this truck instead of the total price of the truck. Thanks for the info.

[25 Year Honda Owner]

Originally Posted by CrazyStups

The price out the door on the trade was like 11.5K he would have to put with it I think. I guess he thought that he wasn't getting a good trade in price. So maybe 11.5K and his truck isn't to bad then. Though it looks like you were able to get OTD with 9K and your truck. So anything is possible. Perhaps we should try to haggle the OTD cost and this truck instead of the total price of the truck. Thanks for the info.

Think you can beat $11.5K but will be hard to beat $10.5K. Not sure about the dealer cost on the NAV. It must be somewhere between $1K and $1.5K. I could not get the dealer to budge off the $10.5 with NAV for my trade, he was the one that volunteered the $9K w/o NAV. I do fine with the Garmin!!

[shovelhd]

25, there are different ways to handle a deal like this and they can all work. I would have done the deal like the OP but up from invoice not down from MSRP, but that's immaterial. He was going to get skunked on the trade. The dealer needed to hedge his bets on the trade value plummeting which it is.

OP, you should hold firm on the price of the 2008 and come down on the trade as much as you feel comfortable. Your truck should be worth more than $16K at auction today but who knows. Try and find a dealer that has a Black Book quote on their site. Either that, or use kbb.com and subtract $2k or so from the good condition trade value.

You have target numbers, so try other dealers.

Chris

[CrazyStups]

We are going to try the dealer where I bought my Ridgeline from. We went to the dealer were he bought his current Ridgeline to give them first crack. We have gotten 2 quotes from competing dealers in our area. The best quote was $26,285.00 plus tax, tags, freight and fees. Which I thought was an awesome quote. Basically the dealer gave us the 4500 incentive right off bat from invoice price and then some because they are trying to promote Ecommerce. Thats the total selling price that we are trying to get to. They said they could do that no issue but then low ball him on the trade saying basically one or the other.

[TarheelGrad1998]

Good job staying on them, though. The dealers will try to play these games hoping you won't notice (or will feel sorry for them and break, or something).

Sounds like you have negotiated a great deal on the truck, now they're trying to make some of it back on the trade. Carmax is painless, as has been said, but they won't always give you the best price (though it never hurts to get it appraised by them). You'll probably not have much luck selling it yourself, with the market like it is b/c of gas, though.

[25 Year Honda Owner]

Originally Posted by CrazyStups

We are going to try the dealer where I bought my Ridgeline from. We went to the dealer were he bought his current Ridgeline to give them first crack. We have gotten 2 quotes from competing dealers in our area. The best quote was $26,285.00 plus tax, tags, freight and fees. Which I thought was an awesome quote. Basically the dealer gave us the 4500 incentive right off bat from invoice price and then some because they are trying to promote Ecommerce. Thats the total selling price that we are trying to get to. They said they could do that no issue but then low ball him on the trade saying basically one or the other.

I think you are missing the boat by trying to get a selling price when you are looking for a trading price. Forget MSRP, look at dealer cost - the incentive. Keep in mind there is also dealer hold back, think it is around 3%. Look on the various web sites and see what your trade in is worth. Then haggle with the dealers. You are just asking for disappointment when you get a low ball cash price then ask to trade, that will not work!!

[shovelhd]

Originally Posted by 25 Year Honda Owner

I think you are missing the boat by trying to get a selling price when you are looking for a trading price. Forget MSRP, look at dealer cost - the incentive. Keep in mind there is also dealer hold back, think it is around 3%. Look on the various web sites and see what your trade in is worth. Then haggle with the dealers. You are just asking for disappointment when you get a low ball cash price then ask to trade, that will not work!!

It has worked for me for years.